Leaving
by Reader128
Summary: After the farm and after learning of Shane's fate, what if Carol decided to leave? Would Daryl go with her? Where would she/they go? What does Daryl's past have to do with this? This begins at the end of "Beside the Dying Fire" and mentions violence... but nothing anywhere near the violence in the movie or show. Horrible summary, better story.


**Disclaimer****: I do not own any recognizable characters or story lines that are contained within this story. I also don't own Daryl's motorcycle or any of the weaponry from the Blade movies or the Walking Dead. If you can recognize it, then I don't own it. I'm just playing around with some already made characters and a few random thoughts that I had.**

**A.N.****: I did not have a beta reader for this because my beta has not (yet) seen Walking Dead. I hope to change this soon and so did not want to spoil anything for her. I hope you enjoy this. Please leave a comment either way.**

"We're not safe with him, keeping something like that from us. Why do you need him? He's just gonna pull you down," Carol whispered to Daryl.

"No, Rick's done all right by me," the man answered, not quite sure where she was going with this.

"You're his henchman, and I'm a burden. You deserve better," she told him.

"What do you want?" he asked her.

"A man of honor."

"Rick has honor."

"You know he's losing it, Daryl. You can see it, too. With everything that's happened: with the farm, Shane,.. Sophia… I'm not sure if I can stay here. If I knew of a safe place, I would go, even if I had to go alone. These people are not the same as they were a few months ago. They're growing cold. Look at what all of this is doing to Carl. He was innocent, and now…. I can't stay here and watch as everyone is destroyed, I just can't."

"What do you want me to do about it?"

"Come with me. It'll be easier to find a place with just the two of us. Please, Daryl, I don't want to lose you, too."

Just then, a noise startled everyone, causing then to think the worst was happening again. Rick walked back into view from where he had been, just outside of the firelight. He told them that no one was leaving, and then he dropped a bombshell on them… he told the truth about what had happened with Shane. For Carol, it was the last straw. Now, all she had to do was convince Daryl.

A couple of hours later, she laid down in her sleeping bag, which she had placed next to Daryl's. She waited until everyone was asleep before trying again.

"Daryl," she whispered, "are you still awake?"

He rolled over to face her.

"Do you understand now why I can't stay? If he's willing to do that to Shane, what else will he do? Shane was his best friend since they were ten years old. He's only known us for a few months."

"I know," Daryl sighed. "I think I might have a place, but it'll be hard to get to. It's about fifty or sixty miles north of here, but we would have to go through a city to get to it. I don't know if there's any way around it."

"We can get up early, look at the map, find some back roads."

"I'll find a way to get us there, you get your stuff. Keep it light; a lot of it won't fit on the bike."

"Goodnight, Daryl, and thank you," Carol told him, placing her hand on his arm briefly before rolling over and going back to sleep.

Daryl didn't say anything, and just put his head down. He had to think. The place he was going to take Carol was one he hadn't thought of in a long time. He hadn't even been back there in almost ten years. The building should still be standing, but he didn't know if all his stuff would still be there. He had set it up so only three people, himself included, could get in, but he never actually told the other two, one of which was dead and the other on the run. It didn't matter though; he had plenty of bolt holes that the two of them could go to if this one was gone. He hoped it was still there, though… it was the best place he had, and it might be their only real shot. He was still awake when the sky started getting lighter. He had dozed off and on throughout the night but had gotten no real sleep. Carol slept peacefully a foot away from him, which didn't help his thoughts much. He had spent a lot of time in the last few months getting closer to her, especially during his search for Sophia, and he didn't really know what to think about that. He had only been this close to one other woman in his entire life and that didn't turn out so well. He sighed, getting up. He needed to look at that map. He nudge Carol just enough to wake her up, nodded at Hershel, who was on watch, and headed over to the truck. He wasn't surprised that Rick had tried to stay up all night, but it looked like exhaustion had gotten to him. The cop was propped up against the stone fence. Daryl was quiet about getting into the truck; he didn't want to wake anyone. The camp would be stirring soon, and he needed to get this done first.

Carol was walking quietly around, gathering her things in a large backpack. She wouldn't have to leave much. She didn't have many things to begin with, and a lot of what she did have had been in the RV when it was overrun. Her clothes and sleeping bag easily fit into the backpack. She also rolled up Daryl's sleeping bag and took their things to his bike (she knew that it really belonged to Merle, but Daryl had always looked more comfortable on it than his brother). She was walking back from the bike when Glenn and Maggie woke up. The camp slowly came alive after that, everyone waking up and packing. No one seemed to notice that Carol and Daryl were already packed and ready to go. By the time everyone was fully awake, Daryl had put the map back and had nodded at Carol, telling her what she needed to know. The two of them were ready to go.

They waited until everyone had eaten before Carol stood up and looked around, "Daryl and I are leaving."

"What?!"

"Why?"

"Where will you go?"

The questions continued until Carol spoke again, "We talked it over last night. We're going to head north."

"Why now? We just lost Andrea, Patricia, Jimmy, and Shane. We can't afford to lose anyone else," Glenn stated.

"You'll do fine. I just, I can't stay here. All I can see when I look around is my little girl. All I can think about is how she died alone, how everyone gave up hope within hours of her being lost. Now, you have all done the same for Andrea. The only difference is that T saw her go down in the middle of a herd. When Sophia was lost, only Daryl and Carl thought she was going to be fine, and even Carl gave up fairly quickly. Daryl kept my faith alive until the day with the barn, and he kept me from falling apart after we found her there. After everything that's happened, he's the only one I really trust. He's the only one that has shown me trust. Yet, he's become the henchman of the group, here to carry out the jobs that no one else wants, and I've become the burden, the one who does all the cooking and cleaning and is forgotten about the rest of the time. Daryl kept this group alive more than once. Between the two of us, we do the majority of the menial work in the camp. Lori, you always spend more time hunting down Carl than anything else. Glenn and Maggie spend most of their time trying to get alone time. T-Dog has to spend most of his time on watch because we don't have anyone else who will. Beth and Carl are too young and innocent to do what Daryl does, and Hershel and Rick spend most of their times making decisions for everyone and trying to keep their children innocent in a world where that doesn't work anymore. You only need me for chores and Daryl for the meat he brings in. I can't live like that, not again. Rick, this may not be a democracy any more, but I can still choose to leave," Carol finished her speech that the group could tell she had been building up to for a long time.

"Daryl," Rick started.

"I may not agree with everything she just said, but she's right about a lot of it. You all give up to easy: with the Atlanta camp, with the search for Sophia, with the farm, and now with this. We're gonna take the bike and go north. I've got a place we can go. It won't work for the whole group, but it might for just the two of us."

"Why didn't you take Merle there when this just started?" T-Dog asked.

"I couldn't. You know what he's like. He's never listened to me. This place is a big part of my past, and I could not let him ruin that. C'mon, Carol, we need to go."

Carol nodded, and the group converged on the two of them, trying to talk them out of going. Daryl walked to his bike and waited. He knew that she wouldn't change her mind; after all, she's the one who convinced him to go. He knew she was right though. The group, instead of coming together after everything that had happened, was falling apart. They might be the first to leave, but they wouldn't be the last. Glenn would leave with the Greenes. T-Dog would eventually leave to head towards the coast. The Grimes family would end up alone, Rick and Carl and Lori, together but alone just the same, especially after what Rick had done to Shane. Their little group was over. It was time to move on. His old life was going to converge with his new one, and he found that he didn't care. He would have to explain his past to Carol, but out of everyone, she was the only one that would come close to understanding. Now, they needed to leave so they could get through the roads before dark. It wasn't a long drive. Before all of this, it would've taken one or two hours at most, but they needed fuel and supplies, and they were going to have to take the long way around. He guessed that it would take five or six hours to even get to the building, and even then there was no telling if it was still intact and whether the walkers had gotten in or not. They were going to have to clean it out if walkers had gotten in, and right now Carol couldn't do that… she didn't have the skills. No one had even thought to train her. She had it in her to be able to do anything, but she didn't know how yet. He was going to have to change that as soon as possible. The place they were going was on the edge of a forest, but it was also on the outskirts of a city.

Carol finally made it to where Daryl was standing, "You ready?"

She just nodded before they climbed on the motorcycle and drove off.

True to his prediction, it took them almost six hours to get to a specific warehouse. They had only stopped once (for fuel and food), but they couldn't carry much on the bike, so they were going to have to find a bigger vehicle soon and make another run. Their route had taken them around the city, but it didn't stop them from finding two traffic jams that they had had to pick around. If they had been in his truck, they wouldn't've been able to get through at all. He pulled up in front of a sliding door and turned off the bike, motioning at Carol to get off. He walked up beside the door and slid open a small panel. Placing his palm on a window there, he breathed a sigh of relief when it lit up.

"Voice identification required," a deep voice stated.

"Voice ID: Scud," Daryl said.

"Voice identification accepted. Entry granted," the voice intoned as the door opened slightly.

"Come on, we need to check the inside before bringing in anything."

Luckily, the inside of the building was exactly how he had left it: messy, dusty, and free of anything living or dead besides bugs and small rodents. Between the two of them, they had cleared out most of the critters in a couple of hours and had brought the bike and all of their stuff inside. Daryl led Carol up the only set of stairs to the second story where four rooms were set up. He took his old room and gave her one of the "guest" rooms that had never gotten used. He left the doors to the other two rooms closed. They got settled in and made lunch. Then Carol looked at Daryl, and he knew that it was time for explanations.

"When I was a kid, Merle used to leave a lot. Before he turned eighteen, it was always for juvie. The day he turned eighteen, he joined the Army. He didn't give a damn about what he was leaving behind, he just had to leave. I was eight. Mom died about a year before he left, so it was only me and Dad. Dad was a lot like Ed. You've seen what my back looks like, so I know you can imagine what went down. I stayed there until I was sixteen. I got a fake id and passport and left the states. Eventually, I ended up backpacking through Europe. That was my life for years, until it wasn't anymore. I met this girl at a bar. Two months later, she tracked me down… she was pregnant, the baby was mine, and she didn't want it. I ended up raising my son on my own in a tent. Everything was fine for the next month or so, but then it all went to hell. My son was kidnapped, taken right out of my arms one night. I spent the next year dancing to _their_ tune, doing whatever I had to keep him save. They set it up so that this one man, Blade, their enemy would find me and rescue me. He took me in, just like they planned. I worked for him for eight months, moving around Europe, living out of warehouses just like this one. I got a message from _them_ one day, telling me that I needed to let in two of their people to deliver a message to Blade. I was supposed to help them get his help, and then help them kidnap and kill him. I couldn't do it. Two days before I was supposed to let them in, I went to him and told him everything I knew.

"He just told me to do what they said, that he had known all along what was going on even if he didn't know the details. He kept me safe, even though he had no reason to. Their people delivered their message, Blade went to see them, and we all ended up working together for about a month. At the end of that month, the mission was over and they came for me… they trashed the warehouse I was in and took me to their hideout. I was able to see my son for the first time in months, got to hold him, and that's how I knew it was almost over. I thought I was going to die. A couple hours later, they brought in Blade. I gave him a speech about being one of _their_ people, and he said that he had been onto me since the moment I had turned. Then, he threw a small dart at me. It was the only weapon he had that they didn't know about. He had hidden it inside his belt. The dart knocked me out, slowed my heart rate down so low that _they_ couldn't hear it, almost made me stop breathing. To _them_, I was dead. It only lasted about thirty minutes, but when I woke up, everyone in the place was dead except Blade and his father, who had been kidnapped at the same time _they_ got Blade. Whistler was standing over me when I finally opened my eyes. He told me that it was over, and then Blade walked into the room with my son. They had snapped his neck the moment that Blade had gotten loose in the compound. Blade and Whistler got me back to the US; they helped me take out my anger. I spent a year making weapons for them, improving their security systems. I was twenty-six when I came back to Georgia. Merle had gotten out of the Army, and I knew that he would be looking for me. So, I set up this place for Blade and Whistler, but before I could tell them, Whistler had been killed and Blade was missing. I couldn't even leave them a message because I didn't want anyone else to know. That was ten years ago. My son would be about the same age as Carl and Sophia if he were still alive."

Carol had kept quiet during his speech, knowing that he had to get it all off his chest, but now she had to speak, "What was your son's name?"

"Norman," he stated, touching the tattoo over his heart.

She just nodded; she had seen the tattoo when he had been injured at the farm.

"So, this place has been empty for ten years?"

"Yeah, I built the security system from the ground up. It was state-of-the-art ten years ago, but it's still good enough to keep everyone out. I built this place to keep out creatures a lot smarter and stronger than walkers. Only someone who is very determined will get in once the doors are closed. We'll be safe here. There's a forest about a mile from here where I can hunt. We can go through the warehouses that surround this one, and we can go into the city for anything else. First though, you are going to learn how to shoot and use a knife. You're also going to learn how to make bullets."

Carol looked at him and nodded again, "When do we start?"

"Right now."


End file.
